


our future in wood grain

by Areiton



Series: Find Me In the World [21]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alpha Derek, Established Relationship, Future Fic, Healthy Relationships, M/M, Mental Health Issues, POV Derek, Panic Attacks, woodworking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-10
Updated: 2018-02-10
Packaged: 2019-03-16 04:40:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 833
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13628769
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Areiton/pseuds/Areiton
Summary: Derek huffs. “I’m not exactly a model for healthy and happy, Stiles. We both have baggage. We knew that.”Stiles twists to peer up at him. He does this sometimes, just watches Derek, like he’s looking for something.





	our future in wood grain

When John flies to California, Stiles has a panic attack.

He waits until his father drives away, Lily dropping him off at the airport, his breath going shorter and shorter as they go, and then he quietly goes to pieces.

It’s not the first time Derek’s seen Stiles unravel. He’s held Stiles, through his nightmares, and they’ve fought, when Stiles mood turns dark without provocation and he lashes out with a fury and savagery that startles Derek.

He holds Stiles, a hand pressed to his chest, his voice a steady murmur. He doesn’t tell Stiles that it’s ridiculous to be this afraid. That John is only going for a weekend, just long enough to watch Melissa marry Chris--that he isn’t even going back to Beacon Hills.

He doesn’t say any of that, just holds Stiles until he goes limp, his breathing ragged and slowing, the worst storm of fear passing.

“Want to go to bed?” he asks, and Stiles nods against his chest. Derek scoops him up and carries him to their bed, settling the younger man in front of him with a soft sigh. Stiles presses back against him and huffs, “Sorry, baby.”

“Don’t apologize,” Derek whispers, pressing a kiss into his skin.

“I’m a mess. You don’t deserve a mess.”

Derek huffs. “I’m not exactly a model for healthy and happy, Stiles. We both have baggage. We knew that.”

Stiles twists to peer up at him. He does this sometimes, just watches Derek, like he’s looking for something.

It’s been six months since Stiles moved in, since John got a house in the village down the road and settled into a quiet life here. John worked with Chris, consulting on security jobs. Stiles worked remotely for a while, but he spent most of his time writing.

“I think it’s good for me,” he had said, the first time he gave Derek his manuscript. “I think it’s helping.”

Derek had hidden in the woods while he read it, tucked up under a tree, his heart pounding. It _hurt_. Ripped open wounds he hadn’t realized were still there, still festering.

Reading about _them_ , about everything they had lived through--it helped.

It helped them both.

He knows that it’s not perfect. He’s known that for longer than Stiles has been here, that it wasn’t going to ever be _perfect_.

But it’s all he wants.

This. Stiles telling stories and shaking apart in his arms. He wants to be the one holding Stiles together, when he’s panting in fear or shuddering with lust.

After he read the manuscript, he kissed Stiles and told him that it was perfect--and then he locked himself in the woodshop.

It was the simplest thing he’d ever made, and it took him eighteen tries before he got it right, before he was satisfied with it.

He knew it wasn’t practical. And there was a piece of him, a piece that remains from the years he spent in Beacon Hills, when he was a broken, angry boy, that says he can’t have this. That he can’t _keep_ Stiles.

He keeps waiting. For that perfect moment. When Stiles is happy and present and the shadows aren’t in his eyes. When he doesn’t feel weighed down by his past, by the dead. When the pack is away and Alina doesn’t have a cold, when John is happy and nothing is distracting him or Stiles. He’s waiting for a perfect moment, and he’s been waiting now, for months.

And it’s stupid.

He _knows_ it’s stupid.

“It’s never going to be perfect,” he murmurs now, and Stiles blinks. He’s still watching Derek, that steady intense stare that makes him seem _seen._

“But it’s still good,” Stiles says, and Derek smiles. He pulls away, rolling off the bed and digging in his drawer before he comes back to Stiles, and presses the little pouch in his hand before sitting cross legged on the bed next to him. Stiles watches him for a moment longer, before he tugs gently on the drawstrings holding it closed and tips it into his palm.

The ring is simple. A thin band, polished and stained, a pale brown speckled with dark. It smells, faintly, of chemicals and beechwood. And he isn’t expecting it, the way his hands shake, seeing it cradled in Stiles palm like an offering.

“We’re never going to be perfect,” Derek murmurs, and Stiles blinks at him, tears shining in his eyes, “but I don’t want anything but flawed and good with you.”

Stiles’ smile is blinding, and when he kisses Derek, holding his face and rubbing his thumb against Derek’s jaw, the ring presses, smooth and steady, against his skin, warm already from Stiles’ finger.

It feels like a promise.

Like the last piece of their puzzle, fitting into place.

It feels like something found, finally, something he didn’t realize he was looking forward, didn’t realize he missed, until he felt it, felt Stiles, pressed against him.

It feels like the future. _Their_ future.

**Author's Note:**

> Come talk to me on [Tumblr](http://areiton.tumblr.com/)!
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> [Stiles' Ring](https://www.harestree.com/product/wooden-ring-beech/)
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> That's it, friends! That's all there is.  
> This fic started as a 500 word drabble because I looked up at the moon and couldn't help thinking about Derek. And then they talked. And talked. And talked. The only thing I knew, when I decided to write part 2, was that IF they ever got a reunion, it would be because Derek slipped in through Stiles' window, and because both of them were healthy enough to be together.  
> I've loved writing this and loved all of y'all's comments! Thanks so much for following this story.
> 
> I will be adding one more part to this series--a compilation of all the parts--but this is it--this is everything. I hope you loved it.


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